Concrete is frequently delivered to a construction site in a concrete mixer truck. The truck may have a rotating drum in which the components of concrete are mixed in route to the site. The concrete is formed by mixing cement and various aggregates, such as sand and gravel, with water to form a concrete mixture. At the site, the concrete is poured from the rotating drum onto a surface generally through one or more chutes, which are typically part of the concrete mixer truck. Once the delivery of the concrete is complete, the chute and other components may be coated with residual concrete material. This residual concrete material should be cleaned off the chute and any other components of the concrete mixer truck in order to prevent hardening of the concrete in place.
Concrete delivery trucks have a supply of water to be added in the mixing process and to be used for cleaning up if necessary. In cleaning the flop chute and other components, water may be sprayed onto the flop chute to mix with the concrete creating cement slurry. The run-off of the cleaning process may be environmentally controlled for at least some applications. For example, it may be desirable to prevent or limit the runoff of the cement slurry and aggregates onto the ground, as the run-off materials may constitute a serious environmental hazard. Further, the run-off materials may constitute lost resources to the concrete provider.
Enforcement of environmental regulations at construction sites is becoming increasingly stringent and hence it is anticipated that this issue will become more prominent in the future. Additionally, concrete is often delivered to residential sites where there is no location to dispose of the residual concrete materials.
Some concrete supply companies have developed truck-mounted wash-off containment systems in an attempt to address this problem. However, existing systems are unreliable and are not user-friendly.
Numerous innovations for the collection of cement slurry and aggregates from concrete mixing and delivery trucks have been provided in the prior art that is described as follows. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, they differ from the present application as hereinafter contrasted. The following is a summary of those prior art patents most relevant to the application at hand, as well as a description outlining the difference between the features of the present design and those of the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,398 of Jeff Cronquist describes a rigid cover attached to the chute of a cement truck that can prevent the accidental discharge of cement residue from the chute of the cement truck while the truck is moving. The use of a rigid cover prevents the bending of the cover under the weight of the cement residue. The rigid cover can be attached to an over-chute portion of the chute such as when the over-chute rests upon the main chute; the rigid cover can be positioned to prevent the accidental discharge of cement from the chute or can be flopped on top of the over-chute. The rigid cover is designed to hold back a substantial amount of cement residue.
This patent describes a rigid cover attached of the concrete chute to stop any spillage from the chute during transport, but it does not involve the process of cleaning and recycling the cement slurry that has been washed from the chute or the implements involved with the delivery of the concrete to the construction site.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,065 of Foyster G. Bell et al. describes a system, method and apparatus for cleaning a mixing truck by removing and recycling any non-delivered material. In one exemplary system, the invention is preferably attached to a mixing truck having at least one delivery chute and a loading hopper. A rail is configured to be attached to the mixing truck so that the bottom end is near a ground surface and the top end is near the loading hopper. The system further comprises a canister that is movable between the delivery chute and the rail. A lifting mechanism is movably attached to the rail and includes a securing device so that the lifting mechanism may secure and transport the canister along the rail. In this manner, material remaining in the delivery chute may be washed into the canister when positioned below the chute. The canister may then be moved near the rail and secured to the lifting mechanism, which in turn transports the canister to the loading hopper where the contents may be emptied.
This patent describes a system for the recovery of the concrete left in the chutes. This indicates the need for such an apparatus, but does not address the feet that most of the areas that concrete is delivered is on rough, uneven dirt surfaces where rolling a heavy container across would not be easy, if not impossible. This apparatus would also involve a major adaptation to all the delivery trucks that would not be practical.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,461 of John W. Jamieson describes a mechanical device for automatically positioning a closure plate for sealing the opening created by the folding of adjacent segments of an articulated chute to thereby prevent undesired discharge or leakage from the chute is provided. The device, which is particularly useful on cement trucks, includes a closure plate rotatably connected to one segment of the chute and disposed to articulate upon an adjacent segment of the chute so that the closure plate seals the opening when the chute is in a folded configuration and, when the segments are unfolded to deliver a charge, rotates to a position clear of the discharge path. The device also includes means for sealably biasing the closure plate toward the opening when the segments are folded and for biasing the closure plate away from the discharge path when the segments are in an unfolded position.
This patent describes another device for closing off the end of the concrete chutes during transport. These devices are generally difficult to keep watertight and allow some of the water and concrete slurry to leak out which is now becoming more of an environmental problem than it has been in the past and can be a hazard on the highways.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,277 of C. Marvin Barry describes This application relates to an apparatus for containing and filtering rinse water, sediment and aggregate resulting from washing the hopper and discharge chute components of a concrete truck at a construction site following use. The apparatus comprises a container removably mountable on the end of the discharge chute, the container having an open upper end, a screen removably positionable within the container and an outlet located in a lower portion of the container below the screen. The apparatus further includes a pump mountable on the truck, the pump having a suction hose extending between, the container outlet and the pump, and a discharge hose extending from the pump to an open end discharging into the mixing drum. When the pump is operating, rinse water and relatively small particle size sediment are flushed down the chute and into the container is automatically conveyed through the suction and discharge hoses into the mixing drum. The screen has openings approximately ¼ inch in diameter to trap relatively large particle size aggregate thereby preventing clogging of the pump fittings. The apparatus avoids the need for a designated truck wash-off station at the construction site and prevents contamination of the site or adjoining waterways with cementation debris.
This patent describes a complete system presently in use on many concrete trucks, but the removable container attached to the end of the concrete chute is difficult to use due to the attachment means, and it does not provide a spill proof means of cleaning the chute.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,782,925 of Manuel Marques Raposo discloses a method and system of recovering concrete which includes admitting a concrete slurry to a tank, pressurizing the tank with a fluid under pressure, discharging through a discharge line the pressurized fluid-slurry from the tank, cleaning the tank by admitting a cleaning liquid into the tank after discharging fluid-slurry there from, and discharging the cleaning liquid from the tank through the discharge line for cleaning purposes.
This patent tells of another complete system presently in use on many concrete trucks, but the removable container attached to the end of the concrete chute is also difficult to use due to the attachment means, and it does not provide a spill proof means of cleaning the chute.
None of the foregoing prior art teaches or suggests the particular unique features of the cement slurry collection chute basin. It therefore would be desirable to provide environmentally sound and economically practical apparatus that would greatly reduce or eliminate the drawbacks previously encountered with the presently existing devices.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the cement slurry collection chute basin in detail it is to be understood that the design is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The cement slurry collection basin is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. In addition, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present design. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present application.